Family members of a recently declared homicide victim who was under state care claim they never were notified of his death, instead learning more than a month later that he had been buried in a pauper’s grave and that no one ever investigated the suspicious circumstances of his fractured skull.

A homicide investigation is now “very active,” according to Chattanooga police, but it comes almost a year after Robert A. Young’s death on Nov. 12, 2007. At the time, he was living at the Health Center at Standifer Place.

Rana Reynolds, the victim’s sister, and two others now are suing the Tennessee Department of Human Services and social worker Vickey Frierson, who handled Mr. Young’s case. The lawsuit asks for a total of $900,000 to compensate for the “negligence” they claim the department showed in the aftermath of Mr. Young’s death.

The complaint, filed Monday, comes just days after the family filed a separate $35 million lawsuit against Standifer Place, claiming that the well-known nursing home acted in collusion with the Department of Human Services and Ms. Frierson to “hide the death and burial” of Mr. Young.

When family members finally found out about Mr. Young’s death a month later and began asking questions, court documents state that Ms. Frierson, who was assigned to the case, answered, “What do you want me to do about it?”

“It’s a sad, sad case,” said attorney Robin Flores, who is representing Ms. Reynolds and the two others in their actions against the state and Standifer Place. “This family obviously was really pushy in trying to get someone to listen to their story.”

He said the homicide never would have come to light without the family’s persistence.

DHS officials declined Monday to comment on the complaint against the department, but took issue with claims that they did not makes efforts to reach the family.

Indicating there was an “established pattern of involvement” in Mr. Young’s case, DHS spokeswoman Michelle MoweryJohnson said the department tried to contact his aunt and only known relative, Rita Richie, on Nov. 9, 2007, as he was dying at Erlanger hospital. Standifer Place had sent him there a few days beforehand, court documents show, for treatment of his skull injury.

The department “never had any indication there was foul-play involved” until the police recently started investigating, Ms. MoweryJohnson said.

Following a court-ordered exhumation of Mr. Young’s body in May, the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office declared Friday that the 33-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer had died of “blunt force trauma” to the head.

Yet after his death, Adult Protective Services, the state agency that had guardianship of Mr. Young, and Standifer Place, where he is believed to have sustained the fatal injury, allowed family members “to believe (Mr. Young) was still alive and occupied his same bed,” when they would call to check in, according to court documents.

“The plaintiffs had the right to immediate notification of any accident, injury or anything unusual that happened to (Mr. Young)” pursuant to state law, the complaint states.

DHS took custody of Mr. Young in 2006, records show, after his mother died and the state established that there were no other family members who had the financial resources to care for him full time.

According to court documents, Hamilton County Medical Examiner Dr. Frank King did not perform an autopsy at the time of Mr. Young’s death because of representations made to him that Mr. Young had fallen and fractured his skull because of a seizure.

Yet on further examination of medical records at the request of the family, Dr. King recommended the body be exhumed because he could not find in the medical records any documentation of seizure or any other incident that would have led to the skull fracture.

Chattanooga police declined to comment on whether they will end up charging an employee at Standifer Place with the homicide, but a nursing home representative on Friday confirmed that the employee under investigation has been suspended.